Daily Inspiration

Are you attached to being right as a way to control how others feel about you and treat you? Do you hesitate to speak your truth because you want to be sure you are right? Protecting yourself from others' disapproval by having to be right is not loving to yourself. It is loving to yourself to speak your truth, without judgment, and then courageously deal with the results.
By Dr. Margaret Paul

Happiness Takes Work: 5 Choices to Create Happiness

Happiness does not just happen - it takes work! Learn about the 5 choices that happy people consciously and consistently make in their thinking and behavior that create their happiness.

All of us have met people who just seem to be happy most of the
time. Perhaps you have assumed that these people are just naturally
happy, or that they are the lucky people who have an easy life, or
they had really loving parents. Most of the time, nothing could be
farther from the truth.

Happy people are making specific choices regarding their thinking
and behavior. Happy people CONSCIOUSLY choose to think and behave in
ways that result in happiness. Unhappy people are UNCONSCIOUSLY
thinking and behaving in ways that create unhappiness.

Following are five of the specific choices that happy people
make:

Optimism

Happy people see the glass as half full, while unhappy people
choose to be pessimistic - to see the glass as half empty. Optimistic
thinking does not just happen - it is a choice regarding how you see
life. Optimistic people are optimistic because they CHOOSE to be
optimistic. Instead of allowing their ego wounded self to be in
charge with all its doom and gloom, happy people put their loving
adult self in charge and open to the wonderful possibilities that
life has to offer. Happy people realize that their thinking is the
beginning of a creative process that leads to manifestation. By
thinking in positive ways, they move themselves to act in ways that
manifest their dreams.

Kindness

Happy people choose to be kind and compassionate toward themselves
and others. Happy people have learned that how they treat themselves
and others determines much of how they feel. Happy people do not wait
to be happy before being kind to themselves and others. They realize
that their happiness is the RESULT of their caring behavior, not the
CAUSE of it. They are kind, caring and compassionate whether or not
they feel like it. They have chosen this way of being, and their
happiness is the result.

Forgiveness

Happy people do not harbor resentment toward others, even others
who have been mean and hurtful toward them. They realize that
resentment makes them unhappy, so they choose to allow people their
humanness and forgive them their hurtful behavior. Because happy
people tend not to take personally others' uncaring behavior, they
don't get their feelings hurt in the same way that people do who take
others' behavior personally. Happy people recognize that another's
behavior is really about that other person, so they move into
compassion toward themselves and others rather than into
judgment.

Acceptance

Happy people realize what they can control and what they can't.
They live by the Serenity Prayer, accepting the things they cannot
change and changing the things they can. Unhappy people are
constantly trying to change people and circumstances and do not
accept their lack of control. As a result, they are constantly
frustrated. Happy people realize they cannot control others and
outcomes, so they focus on what they can control - their own thinking
and behavior. Acceptance of what they can and cannot control leads to
happiness and inner peace.

Gratitude

Finally, happy people are consistently grateful for what they
have, rather than complaining about what they don't have. They notice
the many gifts and blessings that come their way and they frequently
express gratitude for the everyday things in their lives - the beauty
of nature, the food they eat, the smile on a friend's face, their
ability to see, hear, walk, talk. Even many disabled people who may
not have the blessings of eyesight, hearing, speech or legs are often
happy people because they focus on what they do have and what they
can do, rather than focusing on what they are missing out on.

If you want to be happy, then you need to recognize that happiness
is the result of your thinking and behavior, not the cause of it. If
you choose to practice Inner Bonding and focus on becoming conscious of what thoughts and
behavior make you feel happy, you can become a happy person -
regardless of your present circumstances. Happiness does not just
happen - it takes work!